Rudd Government bans AWAs

Australian unions have welcomed the new Australian Labor government’s ban on new AWAs, a form of contract introduced by the right-wing Howard government to cut workers’ pay and conditions.

AWAs are one of the first planks of John Howard’s draconian employment policies to go, and Labor leader Kevin Rudd is promising more reform of employment law to make it fairer and restore basic working conditions.

Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary Jeff Lawrence says the law to ban new AWAs is an important first step in restoring the rights of Australian workers.

“For more than ten years the Liberals and Nationals promoted AWAs as a means to attack workers’ rights and drive down their pay and conditions.

"The Senate Report that was tabled this week confirmed that thousands of Australian workers lost pay and conditions under Work Choices AWAs through the loss of public holiday pay, annual leave loading, shift allowances, overtime pay, penalty rates, redundancy pay and other conditions.

 “The Australian people voted overwhelmingly to get rid of Work Choices and to get rid of AWAs at the last election. The passage of the Rudd Labor Govt’s legislation today is an historic first step towards burying WorkChoices but the job is not over yet.

“Unions will continue to campaign for the complete dismantling of WorkChoices and for the establishment of a fair and balanced IR system that fully protects workers’ rights.

According to official figures, nine out of ten workers lost at least one formerly protected award condition under Work Choices AWAs.
Three quarters of AWAs did not provide workers a guaranteed wage increase over the life of the agreement, some for up to five years, and almost one in three workers that were put onto AWAs lost their rest break entitlements.

The legislation is expected to be in place before Christmas.